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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Serious Games Convey Alzheimer's Disease Pathology

Serious Games as therapeutic interventions
at a bio-molecular level

Fayjuis an independent game development company based in UK who has teamed up withDr Jody Masonof
Essex University, a leading Biochemist currently researching the causes and
prevention of Alzheimer's disease, to create the Serious Game Cascade to convey Alzheimer’s disease pathology at the cellular level and potential
therapeutic intervention approaches.

Many researchers believe that the Amyloid Cascade
Hypothesis best explains the cause of Alzheimer's disease and that certain
therapeutic interventions at a bio-molecular level can have a powerful effect
against the disease.

The rules of Cascade environment and gameplay emulate this hypothesis and
potential solutions. The game is based on research into potential therapeutic
interventions against Alzheimer's disease and will be played out in the brain
amidst a simulation of the Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis that you navigate,
control and attempt to stabilize against the onslaught of the disease.

Game
ContextCascade is a game set in a
brain under the siege of Alzheimer’s disease. The brain cells are involved in a
microscopic war of epic proportions and you have the power to stabilize them.In the game, you explore
interconnected worlds in an infinite universe. A malevolent force that
surrounds you is closing in, extinguishing everything in a Cascade of
annihilation. You are the last frontier against this Devastation, save as many
worlds as you can before there is nothing left to save and all is lost to
memory.

Each of those “big
planets” is a brain cell

On the surface of those
cells are the strands, like trees on a planet. They get broken into 3 bits and
one of those when it accumulates builds up and eventually destroys the cell. You
control the big green ships and they fly around the cells, go down onto the
surface and attempt to manage the chaos saving as much area as possible.